This week on The IX Sports Podcast Hockey Edition, host Maya Smith takes listeners through top headlines before settling into a recap of the Ottawa Charge’s current roster.
Getting ready for the World Championship
The top story this week is that the Women’s Hockey World Championship training camp invites have started going to players. This year, the Championship will be held in November — a departure from past seasons, when it was held in the summer months.
“I think to fit better with the PWHL season and give the players an actual off season, but it means that teams are now running some camps to get ready for that to kind of evaluate their rosters,” Smith said.
Germany was the first team to release its rosters, which includes three familiar names for Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) fans: Laura Kluge (Boston Fleet), Nina Jobst-Smith (PWHL Detroit) and Sandra Abstreiter (Montreal Victoire).
“There were six national team players that were left off of [Germany’s] training camp roster, and we don’t really know why. These are not PWHL players … It could just be due to the way their training has been going. It could be due to injuries. It could be that they already have locked their spot kind of down on the roster,” Smith said.
Czechia, similarly, released a training camp roster with many familiar names, but missing two: Kateřina Mrázová (Ottawa Charge) and Denisa Křížová (New York Sirens). Again, Smith said, there were any number of possibilities as to why these two players were not on the roster.
Ottawa Charge
The Ottawa Charge’s defensive core was somewhat gutted by the PWHL expansion process (which you can read more about in this article from Melissa Burgess). But how are they looking to rebuild the team?
“I think the Ottawa Charge general manager, in my opinion, is — always seems to be the one on the verge of losing his job,” Smith said. “I’ve heard he’s a great guy, and the players really like him, but he always seems to make the most strange decisions”, she continued, referencing the incident in which former Charge captain Brianne Jenner said she wanted to return to the team but was not given the option.
The Charge did not pick up a goaltender during the Entry Draft, and Smith said that cultivating a capable second-string goalie will be important for Ottawa. Gwyneth Philips, the starter, is excellent, but Smith said that having backup will be key to Philips being able to keep up her energy and perform in big moments.
The Charge drafted Vivian Jungels, Jordan Ray and Tereza Pištěková in the PWHL Entry Draft this year, and Smith predicted Jungels was likely to make the final roster with at least one other draftee.
Tune in to the episode to hear more about how the loss of Jenner, Emily Clark and Rory Guilday will impact the team’s prospects this year.
Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports Podcast for in-depth coverage of women’s soccer, hockey and basketball; and tune in each weekday morning for a quick overview of the biggest headlines on Women’s Sports Daily, like WNBA news and PWHL expansion updates.
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